E. Chicago Plant Blast Kills 2

May 09, 1992|By Marla Donato and Angela Bradbery.

An explosion and fire at an East Chicago steel plant Friday killed two workers, injured 10 firefighters and sent dozens of other firefighters and elementary school children to the hospital, officials said.

A nearby coke-processing plant was evacuated, though nearby residents were not. Late Friday, state investigators were still trying to determine if there was any danger posed by chemicals released during the blaze.

The explosion occurred about 9:15 a.m. in the phenol processing area at the No. 2 coke plant of Inland Steel Co.`s Indiana Harbor works. The cause of the blast was under investigation late Friday.

The Lake County Medical Examiner`s Office was trying to identify the victims through dental records, a spokesman said.

Forty children playing outside Lincoln Elementary School, 2001 E. 135th St., complained of itching skin and burning eyes after the blast, said Sally Jensen, a spokeswoman for St. Catherine`s Hospital in East Chicago. The children were treated for minor skin irritations and released, she said.

Ten East Chicago firefighters battling the blaze complained of nausea and burning skin and were taken to the hospital, where they were treated and released, said East Chicago district fire chief Nick Dvorscak. About a dozen more were sent to St. Catherine`s as a precaution, he said.

The firefighters were believed to have been exposed to benzene, cyanide, phenol and phosgene, a chemical used during World War I as a nerve gas, Dvorscak said.

Benzene is a cancer-causing agent; phenol is used in refining coke, he said. Phosgene vapors are poisonous if inhaled and can cause fluid to build up in the lungs, Dvorscak said. None of the firefighters seemed to be seriously hurt, he added.

No nearby residents appeared to be injured, he said, because the department didn`t receive calls from people complaining of similar symptoms, Dvorscak said.

But one man, Jesus Cavazos, who lives about a half-mile from the plant, said he took two of his children to a nearby park Friday afternoon. He put scarfs across their faces but didn`t wear one himself. After two hours, he returned home with a headache and nausea, he said. The children, 8 months and 2 years old, were fine, he said.

``When you go outside, you get headaches from the smell in the air,`` he said.

Investigators for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management were still at the plant late Friday, but department spokeswoman Bettie Cadou had no information about their findings.

Officials at first didn`t know workers had been killed until a head count showed two people missing.

One was found pinned under collapsed steel beams. The second was found after a search of a nearby retention pond that was filled with foam and water used to put out the fire.

About 500 people work in the coke-processing plant, but only about six people worked in the phenol-processing area, Inland Steel spokesman Robert Lefley said. The 50-foot area where the explosion occurred is an unmanned area, but people occasionally monitor it, said Paul Hohl, another Inland spokesman.

Coke is an industrial fuel used in the manufacture and refining of steel. The last fatality at the plant was three years ago, Hohl said.